Project Features

The Technical Support Board of the Digital Archive Research Center for Japanese Cultural Resources (henceforth “the Center”) assists projects employing Digital Humanities (DH) approaches that are organized by humanities scholars, and collects information concerning technical knowledge and needs encountered in such projects. Research activities and the process of archiving technical knowledge are carried out simultaneously in a constructive circular structure of activities that help unearth further productive steps.
The Center accepts projects that aim to develop digital archiving technologies, and projects that promote digital museums utilizing digital archives.

Inviting research projects from within and outside Japan, and providing excellent facilities, support systems, and clearly defined digital-resource application policies

The Center helps generate a constructive circular structure in which digital archives and databases created through research activities expand a body of information that is then shared among wider circles of researchers, leading to more advanced research outcomes. Moreover, making the most of this structure, the Center invites and supports research projects employing DH approaches that can develop large research communities on a previously unseen scale.
The Technical Support Board ensures thorough implementation of its security management policies. Its multi-layered security procedures for information sharing meet the varied protective requirements of different types of resources, so that research activities do not compromise the interests of the owners of resources or rights. Through these efforts, the Center provides a digital environment unrivaled by other organizations.

Kyoto is one of Japan’s premier treasure troves of historical and cultural resources. Constructing digital archives of such resources requires exceptionally advanced and complex digital-archiving technologies and knowledge. Kyoto has also been known as a site of cultural production utilizing new technologies, and is an important site for modern cultural resources such as films and video games as well.
Making the most of its optimal location in Kyoto as a focal point for cultural research and education, the Center leads a number of projects focused on Kyoto’s cultural resources.

Promoting and supporting digital archives at research institutions overseas (primarily universities and museums) involved in research on Japanese culture

The Art Research Center (ARC) has achieved substantial results in collaborative digital-archive projects with organizations abroad, and the demand for further collaborative projects is strong. Sharing ARC’s digital archiving methods for assisting organizations abroad (the international ARC model) more widely, the Center will facilitate the further development of digital archives of Japanese cultural resources at institutions outside Japan.

Developing measures to resolve the issue of cultural-resource database succession

Currently there is a sense of danger that valuable databases constructed by humanities scholars and individual projects lack successors to maintain them. The Technical Support Board collects information regarding successions, including database transfers and changes in the organizational affiliations of database managers, particularly concerning small- and medium-size digital-archive databases that have recently been constructed in large numbers in Japan. Based on this information, the board develops and shares knowledge and methods concerning database succession.